The thesis describes utilizing mass spectrometry and computational methods to study two groups of molecular systems: small organic molecules and oligopeptides. The gas-phase acidities were measured and the structures of the molecular species were calculated. The small molecules investigated included methylparaben, ibuprofen, and triclosan, all known to have some biological activity. The gas-phase acidity measurements made for these small molecules had the solvent and collisional gas pressures adjusted in order to observe their potential influences. The results obtained provide insight into the ion chemistry of these molecules and how the energetics may change the observed behavior of the ion as well as the resulting thermochemical properties measured. The oligopeptides studied were a family of tri-peptides in which a cysteine probe was placed within an alanine backbone. The cysteine probe was either in the L- or D- configuration in order to detect any fundamental differences among the diastereotopic peptides. Compared to the L-cysteine isomers, the D-cysteine peptides appear to display a change in gas-phase behavior and their respective dissociation profiles. These changes may have an implication of altering the biochemical properties when chirality changes in biological systems.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pacific.edu/oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-1261 |
| Date | 01 January 2016 |
| Creators | Buen, Zachary |
| Publisher | Scholarly Commons |
| Source Sets | University of the Pacific |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
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